Vuelta a España - Race Overview

A final 9.7km time trial has brought the 2014 Vuelta a Espana to a close today, ORICA-GreenEDGE’s three weeks highlighted with a stage win and three days in the race leader’s red jersey.

In wrapping up the final grand tour of the 2014 season, sport director Neil Stephens identified Michael Matthews’ time in the red jersey as one of the surprising highlights.

“We came into the Vuelta a Espana with an objective of stage wins,” Stephens said.

“We got one stage win which is certainly more than other teams so we kicked a goal as far as that goes.

“I was shooting for the stars and wanted to try for a couple of stage wins and we came up a bit short of that but in saying that I never even considered taking the lead of the race and we did that for three days.

“To be able to lead the Tour of Italy and Tour of Spain in one year, following last year’s success at the Tour de France, that is really something special for the team.”